Clunkmeister

So not much to show tonight other than turning the kit’s seat into rubble.

The seat back is quite Plain Jane, so again following Nige’s lead, I tried doctoring up the back with some lightening holes and general clean up to see how it looks. I have precious nothing for Canadian reference materials, so the only thing I can say for sure is that this seat will lose its armor plating Im not liking the moulded on details, so I might just trash this and scratch up a seatback, but I’ll sleep on that thought and decide tomorrow. I’m not sure the end will justify the labor, we’ll see. And from what I can see, that lower extension past the bottom cross support needs to be 86’d as well.

Well, I’m for an inch, in for a mile. I emulated Nige’s initial cutson the seat, looking to follow in his footsteps and get a feel for what he did. I just mocked up the floor into the port side cockpit wall and will check out the fit. But, unlike Nige, I’m a whittler, so out came a fresh #11 and away I went. Sure enough, I whittled right down into my fingers. Yep, I see first blood. It took less than an hour.

Agreed!

Interesting that. So all Hamilton props would have had to come by convoy from the USA. Pretty tenuous supply chain for such a critical assembly.

I’d sure appreciate any you can provide, Nige. You’re obviously well read in the subject of A.V. Roe and Co., so any info you can offer, go for it. I’m a sponge...

Ha! And no going back for me, either. I ju st cut the bottom off the seat. Nige, did you end up shortening the seat pan as well? 4.5mm was what I read. That’s a lot. And your seat looks spot on to me. I’m gonna build the latticework for the pilots seat floor as well. The way I see it is that this are needs the love. It’s 100% visible when completed.

Okay, having not followed the development of this kit, am I safe to assume that the designers used late production Lanc Mk.X versions as patterns and for exterior detail? Unless shown or told otherwise, I’m gonna assume as much, sooooo,... this kit, after doing the previous changes discussed already, should be pretty darn close to the 50s-early 60s RCAF ships. So putting on some good tunes and away we go.

Smitty the spoiler. Your RCAF Lanc looks like most others, AND, it's a Brit built bird as well.

Gonna give Nige's seat and platform fix a try tonight. Mine's a postwar Lanc, so I expect the armor plate is gone, but it still needs lowering.

Hey folks, Regarding needle vs paddle blades. Were Brit birds all built with needle blade props, or did they receive the paddle blade Hamiltons after a certain date? If they did, my understanding is wrong. I always thought Canadian production got Hamiltons after a certain date (local supplier and all), and the British aircraft received them when required for maintenance.

Serious coincidence. I have 35 years of attempting to not break airplanes and driving automobiles to destruction.

Bill, your swami is correct!

Johnny Fossil! Get out of comfy chair and belly up to your bench. Your Horten won't get built by positive waves of good intention. Feeling groovy positive waves, man.

Yes, thanks for that. In that pic, the new metal and paint are extremely obvious. For once in a very long time, I'm actually SUPER excited about a build. As in I can't wait to get home and start cutting plastic.

Actually I was wrong and had them backwards. 213 is flying today as the CWH Lanc, so she's alive and well. 104 is in B.C. being restored. My Bad, sorry. Carl, I had them reversed and dangit, I may swap numbers and build 104, undecided. But no worries, either or, they're darn near identical. I even just found one of those unique dark antenna housings that these Lancs had on the rear greenhouse. Left over from an RCAF Mustang build where I used the Leading Edge set....

That would be the easy way of course, but it's not difficult either way. I guess if someone was selling one for a few bucks I'd buy and use one to save the time and dust. Gotta check out references though to see if 213 originally had a Martin turret, because if so, the patch panel on the fuselage would show farther forward...

Phil, the Gizmo is the upper receiver for a British L1A1 SLR. The SLR is a variation of the FN FAL that was redesigned from metric to inch measurements by Longbranch Arsenal (CAL) in Canada and was then adopted in some form by almost all Commonwealth Nations. Nations who used the Metric system used the original metric pattern FAL, while Canada, N.Z., Australia, and the UK adopted the Inch Pattern. The USA came real close to doing so as well, but instead opted for an redesigned and improved Garand known as the M14.

The retired RCAF rescue fleet makes up the majority of surviving Lancaster bombers left on Earth, so I'm really hoping to bring the old girl to life in miniature, and as Hubert said, honor those who flew these aircraft to save lives rather than take them. Aircraft 213 is now in B.C. and getting the restoration she so richly deserves.

More like day, month, and YEAR I finish. I'm aiming for this July as I'd like to take it to the Nats in August, but who knows. Unexpected self inflicted issues with the F-5F pushed the the start date back an entire month.

Carl, that’s a Blessing in disguise. Mounting that engine correctly made my forehead bigger.

Martin conducting a clinic again. Sublime, my friend, sublime.

And probably the easiest way to eliminate the windows is to carefully, tediously cut pieces of Evergreen to fit, invent many new English words along the way, sand it oh so carefully until it’s just right. Then repeat 17 or so more times. Just kidding, I’ll install the windows, fill the edges, scribe over them as needed, then prime. I know enough cuss words as it is. I don’t need any more.

LOL, yeah, I had to get it. I build a lot of HPH stuff and having the color instructions, plus reference material right there is gonna be nice. Plus, I can stay on LSM while I build and torment you beggars.

thing that was bothering me was the upper turret location. I never really looked how it was molded, and I had nightmares about having to cut off the raised aerodynamic fairing ring from the fuselage. Imagine my relief when I checked and found that they molded the ring separate. Whew! But alas, HK didn’t thoughtfully include a turret blanking plate like they did on the B-25, so I’ll need to bend and cut one myself.